At every truck stop, the angry old women on our bus completely hogged the sinks. They all wanted to spend fifteen minutes washing different parts of their body--including their feet--and so no one could wash their hands until all the old-lady feet were clean. It's a prayer ritual, I know, but it was frustrating to not be able to wash my hands for so long. Also I was on melatonin because Kimia gave it to everyone to help them sleep on the ride, so being at a Turkish truck stop was really confusing and chaotic because we were all sleep-drugged and also because there were markets, restaurants, and like 5000 versions of Turkish delight for sale. It was kind of hallucinatory. I bought what I thought were dried apples but which were definitely not dried apples (I dk what they were).
This place is white. And dusty. And rocky. It feels like we are on Mars, in a nice way. We are staying in a hostel that is literally in a cave. It is called Shoestring Cave Hostel, and it was kind of expensive (25 TL/night/person) but we are living in a cave. So worth it. There is a pool with an amazing view and a little dog named Princess that waddles around through the rooms all day.
After we settled in, we met this nice little old man who has a jewelry shop just down the street from our hostel. We all had tea with him! He had quite interesting views on the Gezi Park stuff that's going on--he thought countries near Turkey were trying to hype up the drama so they could steal Turkey's tourism and boost their own economies. But then again, the US is also hyping up the drama and I don't think we would get any tourism leftovers.
On our way to the Open-Air Museum (had no idea what it was; now I know that it is awesome) we found this pottery place and bought little painted tiles and stuff. Then they let Michelle, Oya and I throw pots on their wheel! I made a very ugly little cup, but they put it in the kiln for me and now I have a souvenir.
For lunch, I had a chicken sandwich that turned out to be literally half a loaf of giant bread with a tiny amount of chicken inside. Actually, it was a normal amount of chicken, but the ratio was just insanely off. The bread is so amazing here, though, that I ate the whole thng (and then felt disgusting while hiking). Also, "iced coffee" here involves copious amounts of whipped cream. And chocolate syrup. I'm all for it.
The Open-Air Museum. It took us three hours to get there even though it is only half a mile away because we kept getting distracted. None of us had any idea what it was, but here's a fun fact for anyone traveling in Turkey: the Istanbul Museum Card works ALL AROUND TURKEY. Not just in Istanbul. So the museum was gloriously free! It turns out the museum is a bazillion little tiny caves that have been carved out at various points in the past couple thousand years (I clearly don't know my history) and have been made into beautiful cave churches filled with frescoes (either geometrical shapes or Christian stuff--annunciation, crucifixion, etc.) To get from one cave to another, you have to walk through this giant beautiful mountain with huge rock formations everywhere. I can't do it justice with words. But it's way better than walking around in even the most well-air-conditioned museum because there are no hallways--just mountain. Azra and I paid a little bit extra (8 TL) to go inside the "Dark Church", which is where the most well-preserved frescoes are (some of the others are pretty weathered, which makes sense after being outside for so long). The Dark Church only has one window, so apparently it got less snow etc. It was pretty cool. I wish I knew more about religion and art from that time period (whatever time period it was...), because basically all I could pick out was Jesus and Mary and whether Jesus was a baby or a man. Probs incomplete.
I can't remember what I ate for dinner. I was that tired. But I'm sure it was good. Yay for Cappadocia!
hello, i love you. and your adventures in TURKEY!!
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